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Peggy Starr's adult daughter, Christina Thomas, has been found guilty in connection with the same case. Starr, 56, waived a jury trial, so her case is being heard by a judge.

She faces a charge of first-degree assault. Police said that when the boy was removed from the home where he was raised, he was 6 1/2 years old and weighed just 23 pounds.

The state is expected to call many of the same witnesses it did in Thomas' first-degree assault trial. The boy's biological mother, referred to by the initials E.A., testified Monday.

"He has a scar on one of his legs from where Peggy hit it with a spatula, and it cut him when it broke," she said.

E.A. described a toxic home environment. She said she was living with Thomas and her five children when her son was born. E.A. said she has developmental disabilities and entrusted her son's care to Thomas and Starr. She claimed they punished him for often getting sick, an issue later determined to be reflux-related.

"People were told not to feed him, and they wouldn't feed him," she said.

In court, E.A. said the boy was put in trash cans and dog crates, and disciplined if he said he was hungry. Starr's defense attorney got E.A. to admit that she sometimes disciplined the boy, as well.

"I never said I was an angel," she said.

The boy's mother said that when she saw him during supervised visits after he was removed from the home, he had quickly put on weight and grown.

"The food that everyone was saying was making him sick wasn't making him sick," she said.

Starr could face 30 years in prison if convicted.

The boy turns 12 this summer, and officials said he is thriving with the family who adopted him five years ago.